Alphabetized by Feeling

A is for nothing in particular. This shelf runs on a logic the alphabet never offered.

By Nogical Editorial Desk

Standard sort orders assume everyone is retrieving information the same way: A to Z, oldest to newest, smallest to largest. But plenty of people's internal filing systems don't run on any of those axes. They run on texture, on mood, on the season something happened, on how a color made them feel at 8pm on a Tuesday.

This kind of sorting looks arbitrary to an outsider and airtight to the person who built it. The spice rack ordered by how often it's reached for isn't chaos, it's ergonomics. The playlist ordered by ‘songs that feel like rain’ instead of genre isn't quirky, it's just a more honest category than the ones iTunes gave you.

The alphabet is one sorting technology among many. It's popular because it's shared, not because it's correct. A system only has to make sense to the person who has to live inside it—and the most useful ones usually do.